Whisked away...
I headed back through ghost town, it was getting colder now. In the distance I could see thunder clouds heading towards the park. Flashes of light followed by crackles from afar. I quickened my pace wanting to get my wife and I home before the rain began.
I stopped for a moment, noticing a few rain drops falling from the sky and leaving small water marks on concrete...
…Suddenly something ran past me. As my eyes began to focus on it I noticed it was a young boy. The boy was headed toward the sky cabin in the Boardwalk themed area of the park. He was dressed in some kind of weird tribal gear, loin cloth and sandals. For some reason this felt familiar but I couldn’t put two and two together at the time.
I followed the boy up into the sky cabin, but once inside he was no longer there. I have to admit I found this very eerie and thought the boy may have been a ghost!
On account of all the creepiness I decided to head back out of the cabin, but before I could all the lights on board began to flicker. Then the control panel lit up and the doors closed locking me inside. A shrill of terror engulfed me to my core as I began to pry on the doors with my fingers but it was no use. I even pounded on the doors thinking. “Maybe someone will hear me.” But no one did.
Rain began to pour outside, the wind picking up now. The ride was on. The fear that festered inside of me finally began to subside and was soon replaced with anger and frustration.
“It’s starting to rain!” I shouted at the cabin. “I’ve got to go home!"
Without warning the Cabin began to move! It slowly began to lift up to the top of the tower, and as it reached the top there was a large blinding flash that I could only assume was lightning hitting the cabin.
The sky cabin had now reached the top of the tower, and since I had operated the ride many times before I assumed that it would be heading back down the tower shortly to finish its ride cycle and let me out, but that didn’t happen. Instead the strangest of things happened… the cabin somehow continued to rise further into the air! It had somehow passed the top of the tower! It was flying! Three hundred feet, six hundred feet, one thousand feet!
Soon enough the cabin was well above the thunder clouds and I could see the lightning in the storm now flashing in a dark sea of cloud below as the cabin and I floated high above the unseen earth.
It had been awhile since I had worked this ride, and even back then I had never seen it do anything as strange as this, but I needed to at least try to reverse it somehow. Or at least keep it from rising any further.
In a panic I used the control panel to emergency stop, and amazingly it did! Floating completely still high above the earth in the sky. The ride was simple enough. Maybe if I restarted the ride it would go back to the loading dock. But as soon as I tried the cabin began to free fall back through the clouds, and I free falling inside of it! For a moment I remember thinking to myself. “I wish I was anywhere but here!"
Though I was shaken up. I knew I had to be brave, so I tried with all of my might to make it back to the panel as I jumbled inside the cabin, it rotating in a downward spiral plummeting back towards the earth. Through the windows I could see the earth getting closer... I had to do something fast or this cabin was going to crash land with me in it! I grabbed ahold of the railing pulling myself as close as I could to the control panel and pushed the emergency stop button once more. Once pushed the cabin came to a halt miraculously hovering about ten feet above the ground.
“I must be dead!” I thought trying to understand what had just happened. But then I realized my heart was pounding as much as a humming bird flaps its tiny little wings.
“Surely I’m still alive.” I thought as I laid on the sky cabins floor. I started to breathe slowly trying my best to calm all the anxiety. Once I had finally calmed myself enough I began to try and stand. Thankfully, other than a few bumps and bruises, I was still intact. The only harm that had come to me was mostly psychological. I took another look outside the sky cabins windows...It was dark outside now but I could tell I was now above what seemed to be a sandy beach.
I remember thinking how Impossible the situation was as I once again used my fingers to pry at the cabins doors.
“This is not happening... This has to be a dream. There is no way that the sky cabin could go anywhere without being attached to its tower!”
...Yet here the sky cabin was levitating ten feet above the ground of some beach that I couldn’t recognize.
My attempts to pry open the sky cabins doors were unsuccessful... until I finally became frustrated enough to shout.
“Open!” I demanded while using my fingers to pry at the doors. Shockingly the doors abruptly opened on their own. My heart sank into my stomach as I took a step back wondering what was going on?
“At least the doors are open again.” I thought.
I decided to leave that terrifying ride before it had the idea of taking me back up into the sky once more. It was a pretty good jump from the cabin to the beach below, so I hung from the cabin to lessen the fall. As soon as I landed on the beach the cabin came crashing down slamming in front of me, the sound of it all echoed through my body.
“I’m glad I wasn’t inside when that happened.” I thought.
The beach was dark, no light anywhere. I remember telling myself that I had to get back home, but something was happening to my mind. I began to find myself wondering where I had to get back to, I couldn’t remember. I didn’t know where I was or how I got there.
I stared at the sky cabin thinking to myself “What’s that thing?” and “How did I get here?” I had lost all memory of everything, even things that had just happened slowly faded from my mind. But I knew that someone was waiting for me. A woman, that loved me very much. How I was going to get to her I didn’t know.
I was utterly lost, but I knew that I had to find a way.
I lay there on that cold beach for the night staring into the ocean, it was vast and I didn’t know I had seen an ocean before, so it was like seeing it for the first time all over again. It was beautiful and disturbing at the same time.
“How could it be so big?” I thought to myself.
I stayed there on that beach, waiting, trying to remember, then finally sleeping as the waves crashed in the distance.
I dreamt that night. It was about a Woman. She was beautiful and when I came to her she asked me where I had gone. “I don’t know.” I told her. “I don’t even know who I am.”
“You are Michael.” She replied. “How do you not remember who you are?”
“I can’t I’m sorry.”
The Woman held my face in her hands looking directly into my eyes. “Don’t forget me.” She pleaded. “I’m your wife.”
The sun had come up as I slept on that beach. Something poked me in my side.
“Don’t poke at him.” Said a young feminine voice. “He’ll wake up.”
“Nope, I think he’s dead.” replied a young masculine voice.
“Really?... because dead things don’t breathe.”
“Well good, he can get off our beach. Wake up you!” He demanded smacking me in the head with a stick.
I turned my body over yelling from all the pain, then grabbed the stick out of his hand and tossed it as far as I could.
As my eyes began to focus, I began to see the two figures, one of which was standing over me, an angry young man dressed in cuffed blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a leather jacket. He was sporting a pompadour hair style… your typical greaser style hooligan.
The other was much calmer and collected. A young woman. She kept her distance. She wore a white dress with red polka dots. Red lipstick and she had jet black hair pinned up in a red bandana.
“Hey??? Who do you think you are?!” Said the young man. “You can’t just steal someone’s hitting stick!”
“Who do you think YOU are??” I replied. “Hitting people WITH sticks??”
“We are operators, protectors of the Boardwalk.” Replied the young lady. “I am Coast Ryder, and the guy annoying you is Surfside.”
“That’s right!” Surfside added. “This is our beach! Now scram!”
“This is your beach?”
“Yeah, and your trespassing on it!”
“Tress-pass-ing?.... What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means you’re not supposed to be here! That bad things will happen to you if you stay here, you may even die…Now leave!”
I didn’t want to argue with this Surfside guy, it seemed he already made up his mind about me and I was much too depressed to fight with him.
“Okay.” I answered. “…I’ll leave.”
I stood up and dusted the sand from my clothes then walked away… But I didn’t know where to go. I was so confused that I accidently left my hat behind.
The two watched me as I wandered down the beach.
“Hmmm. Thought he’d put up a bigger fight than that?” Said Surfside.
“Why do you have to be so mean Surf?” Asked Coast.
“I’m not mean!” Demanded Surfside. “He’s trespassing on our beach!” We’re supposed to protect the beach and boardwalk from anything and anyone… remember?”
“I know.” Replied Coast. “But he looks harmless. I think he might be lost, maybe we should help him?”
“Things aren’t always what they seem.” Surfside remarked. “He could be very dangerous.”
“I don’t think so.” She declared. “If he was bad, he would have tried something by now, he probably just needed a place to rest.”
“Maybe, but can we take those kind of chances? What if he came out of the water?”
“Look at the way he’s dressed!” She countered as she picked up the Engineer’s hat that I had forgotten. “I don’t think anything in that water dresses like that, and you weren’t very nice to him. what if you were lost and didn’t know where to go? Then at the first sight of people you get smacked in the head with a stick and are told to scram? How would that make you feel?”
“Why?” Surfside frustratingly asked. “Why do you always have to make me feel guilty about every, little, thing I do?”
“Because you are guilty.” Coast answered. “We are Operators, right? We should at least have some decency and show some kind of hospitality. We should see what’s wrong with him.”
“But I don’t wanna!” Surfside Demanded...
Meanwhile I began to take a long look at my surroundings as I stood there on that beach. There was a pier nearby, a boardwalk and some nearby shops but everything looked abandoned.
One thing I saw and found most interesting was a strange green fountain off in the distance. It was oddly placed in the sand. This fountain was very large and had different animal heads made of stone. There were lions heads, fish heads, crabs, and ram’s heads all leading up to a statue of a woman. The woman was dressed in a gown at the top whom held her arm out reaching into the sky, I think she may have been carrying a light of some sort. It also seemed as though she may have been looking at me, but that could’ve just been my imagination.
The fountain was beautiful as it continually gushed a stream of water from the top where the woman stood, the water flowed downward over the different animal statues cascading along the way then finally ending in a large circular pool at the bottom. It was so beautiful that I thought whomever had made it had put much effort into their work. I felt lucky to have seen it, but felt bad that there was nobody else around to enjoy it.
It was just me here, those other two, but they didn’t even want me around, and a large beach. I had no clue where I was, didn’t even know where I came from. I decided to go back to the sky cabin only because it looked somewhat familiar. I knew something had happened with it but I couldn’t remember what.
When I got to the Sky cabin I could hear Surfside and Coast arguing, their voices echoing in the distance. They eventually stopped and found me there.
“Hello.” Greeted Coast, with a smile on her face. She returned my hat back to me.
“Thanks.” I replied.
“We’re sorry for all the confusion earlier, the two of us are actually pretty nice once you get to know us...Isn’t that right Surf?”
For a moment Surfside wouldn’t answer, but then Coast looked at him with the most hazardous of glares.
“Isn’t…THAT RIGHT SURF???” She said again, but this time in a more ferocious of tones.
“Fine!… Yes, we’re so sorry.” Surf finally answered, his voice reluctant and monotone.
I shrugged. I didn’t really care if they were sorry or not.
Coast asked me if I was lost. I told her I didn’t know and I couldn’t remember anything.
“Sure sounds like your lost to me.” She replied with a light grin. “Do you know your name?”
I thought very hard for a moment and then it came to me.
“Michael.” I told her, I could at least remember that.
“Where did you come from?” Surfside grunted, I could tell he was trying his best to be polite, but his emotions seemed to be running high from our small spat from earlier. “Did you get here in that thing?” Surf asked pointing to the sky cabin.
“I think maybe I did.” I replied. “But I can’t remember for sure.”
“Hmm.” Said coast. “I’ve heard ancient stories of people crossing over to other worlds, and when they do they can’t remember a thing. Maybe you’re like them?”
“I don’t know.” I replied. “Maybe.”
“Or maybe Surf hit you in the head so hard that you lost all memory of everything?” Declared coast as she scowled at Surfside.
“Oh please.” He replied, rolling his eyes. “I barely touched him.”
“Well, he can’t remember anything!” she snapped back.
“I couldn’t remember anything last night either.” I added. “I think my memory disappeared last night, all I can remember is remembering and then not remembering.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!” Surfside Disputed. “How is it possible to remember remembering that you don’t remember anything???”
“I know.” I whined holding my face between the palms of my hands. “Nothing makes sense anymore!”
“It’s so strange." Said Surfside as he pulled Coast aside.
“What?" Coast asked.
“Well, he’s defiantly a grown man.” Surfside whispered. “At least thirty years old, but it’s almost like he’s lost all of that, like he's some kind of child... like he’s lost the memories that come with being an adult."
“Maybe he has?” Coast added.
“Hmmm….” Surfside Pondered. “This is very strange.”
“Yes.” Coast replied. “Very strange indeed.”
Coast came to me patting me on the back telling me to cheer up, that they’d help me find my memory.
“How can we do that?” I asked.
Well first things first...” Replied Surfside, finally warming up to me. “You should check your pockets. Maybe there’s something that can refresh your memory.”
I emptied out my pockets but there was nothing much, a red handkerchief, a strange looking glove and a wallet, which Surfside grabbed right out of my hands.
“Look here, there’s a picture of you printed on this weird hard paper… It’s in color too! So your name IS Michael…. Guess you’re telling the truth. Says here that this is a driver’s license! Hmmm… What’s a driver’s license?”
“I dunno?” I replied.
“Oh well.” He shrugged. “Look! There’s an address here! Buena park, California.”
“Where’s that?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” Surf answered. “I’ve never heard of it before… Must be a faraway land”
“Our friend the Farmer might be able to help you.” Coast added.
“The farmer?” I asked.
“Yes.” Replied Coast. “His name is Mr. Knott. He’s a nice man, his farm is a little far, but he knows a whole lot about everything, and travelers go there all the time.”
“Oh yeah!” Surfside added. “Maybe he knows where this “Buena Park.” Place is?”
“Do you think he can help me find her?” I asked.
“Who?” Coast replied.
“I don’t know, but I know she’s waiting for me, and I need to get to her.”
“Is this her?” Said Surf pulling a picture out of my wallet. It was a picture of a woman. The woman from my dream!
“That’s her!” I replied. “I dreamt of her last night!”
“She’s very pretty.” Said coast. “Look! There’s a ring on your finger, maybe your married to her?”
“I think I am.” I answered. “Do you think the farmer can help me find her?”
“Well, I don’t know about that.” Surfside speculated. “But he might be able to help find someone who can, maybe even get you on the right track to finding your memory again.”
The two decided that they would help me. That they would take me to see the farmer so I could find my way home. The three of us headed up the beach.
Coast decided that we should eat before our journey, Surfside asked me if I had ever fished before.
“I don’t know.” I replied.
“That’s right.” Surfside laughed slapping himself on the forehead. “I forgot you can’t remember anything.... We’ll show you how.”
The three of us sat on the edge of a long pier. Coast let me use her fishing pole instructing me how to use it.
“Okay Michael.” Said Coast in an encouraging manner. “Cast your line out.”
With both hands I swung the pole behind me then let my line fly out into the ocean.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Now we wait.” Replied Coast.
It wasn’t long before I had caught a fish, Coast helped me reel it in. It was rather small. I took it off of its hook and it flopped around on the wooden pier.
“Too small.” Said Surfside. “Throw it back so it can become a big fish someday.”
Gently I picked up the small fish intending to release it back into the ocean, but the slippery thing was so frightened that it wiggled and squirmed out of my fingers. It flopped around on the wooden pier, then back into the water it went.
I didn’t like fishing, I felt bad for the little fish, I think it was scared and alone, I was glad it got to swim free again.
Not long after, Surfside caught a huge fish and killed it immediately.
“Don’t want to let it suffer.” He said. “It’s the law of nature to consume life. But make the kill quick so the life doesn’t suffer.”
The two showed me how to build a bon fire, we cooked the fish over the fire and ate.
“That fountain?” I asked. pointing to the green fountain I had seen earlier.
“What about it?” Surfside replied.
“Is it supposed to be there?” I asked.
“We don’t know.” Coast weighed in. “My Mother once told me that this fountain is one of many, but they are so old, and the others are so far away that nobody knows much about them.
It’s pretty, isn’t it?” She added.
“Yes.” I agreed.
“Well, if you think that’s cool then check this out." Said Surfside pulling up the sleeve of his jacket and revealing a strange silver band. “Ready Coast?”
“Okay!” She answered.
The two stood up and took a step back from the bonfire
“Transports!" The two shouted simultaneously. A bright light flashed out from the arm of Surfsides jacket. Another bright light flashed from another metal band wrapped around Coast’s ankle. Suddenly out of the sand came two large objects. Weird transports you could ride in. One was painted orange, it floated above the ground and had two wings on it, one in the rear and one in the front, the front could move side to side so it’s driver could steer. The other was some sort of land buggy that could seat about four people in it. The land buggy was painted red, oddly enough it had no steering wheel.
“What are these?” I asked.
“Our rides.” Surf smiled. “Mine, the one floating there, is called a Glider, and that one there, well I don’t know, Coast never named it.”
I was amazed at what they had just done. How did those small metal bands bring out these large transports from the ground? It was like magic!
“Well...” Said Surfside. “We should head out while it’s still early, if we want to make it to that farm on time.”
“One of us has to stay behind.” Coast insisted. “Someone has to protect the beach.”
“I’ll do it.” Replied Surfside. “Nothing gets past me.”
“What are you protecting the beach from?” I asked. “There’s nothing here.”
“Your right.” Surfside answered. “There is nothing here, but there used to be. People used to come to this boardwalk from all over enjoying this beach, but now they’re all gone.”
“What happened to them?” I asked.
“Nobody knows. That’s why Coast and I are here. To investigate what happened, to find out what took them and to stop it from happening again.”
“Maybe whatever took them is gone now?” I asked. “It doesn’t seem like there’s anything here.”
“Oh but there is.” Surfside Replied. “Something big, something evil. I used to have more gliders and it took them all.”
“Where is it?” I asked.
“Somewhere deep in the water.”
“What is it?”
“We don’t know...” Surfside whispered. “It has yet to reveal itself.”
“How do you know there’s something there?”
“I can feel it. People like Coast and I can feel where these types of things are… That’s why we are here protecting the beach. I think it knows we’re here too… Once it reveals itself. I’ll be ready for it.” He took off his jacket and showed me more of those weird bracelet like bands on his arm.
“What are those?” I asked.
“Operators bands of course.” He declared. “They can only be used by operators, and only certain operators can use them. This is how we protect the boardwalk.”
“You’re an operator?” I asked.
“I sure am! …So is Coast.” He added. “But she only just found out she’s an operator, she can use them okay, but I need to teach her much more.”
“I know a lot already.” Coast added.
“Am I an operator too?” I asked.
“Do you have any Operators bands?”
“I don’t know.” I answered.
“Well, check your arms.” Surfside insisted as he rolled up my sleeves looking for operator’s bands, but my arms were bare. Just brown skinned arms.
“Sorry buddy.” Surfside sympathized. “I don’t think you are, but that’s okay, most people aren’t. In fact, operators are very rare.”
After eating breakfast with the two, Coast and I set out for our journey. Surfside and Coast said their goodbyes giving each other a great big hug. Coast and I hopped aboard her buggy transport and headed away from the beach. The terrain slowly changed as we traveled into what were now grassy plains.
Coast’s little buggy moved rather quickly. There wasn’t much to see along the way Just long blades of brown grass flowing with the wind. The buggy would speed through them leaving a trail of crooked grass behind. Soon enough we came to a small hill which the buggy scaled effortlessly, beyond the hill were more plains but these were livelier than before. The grass seemed to grow greener the further we traveled here, but as the terrain changed so did the sky. Soon enough dark clouds began to form in the distance. They were extremely far off and lightning would occasionally flash from them followed by long delayed thunder.
“What is that?” I asked. I didn’t know I had seen a storm before.
“A storm.” Coast replied.
“What’s storm?”
“A storm is cold, it’s windy, it’s rainy, and there’s thunder and lightning too!”
“I don’t think I like it very much.”
“Well, It’s necessary” She replied.
“Necessary?”
“Yes, it may seem scary, but it’s necessary. Without the rain nothing would grow, and there would be nothing to drink, and if there were nothing to drink everything would die… Don’t be afraid of it, it’s too far to get us from here anyway.”
We were moving further away from the storm, but I kept an eye on it the whole time. The land began to change again, this time there was no grass at all, just dirt. Everything began to feel eerie now. Coast decided to distract me by letting me drive, which she found strange because I was rather good at it.
“Maybe you ARE an operator? She said with a smile.
“Maybe.” I laughed. It was fun driving her little buggy, all I had to do was think which way I wanted the buggy to travel and the buggy would do it, that’s why there was no need for a steering wheel.
We drove for a while and the sun began to shine down upon the land now. The storm was so far we could barely see it now.
Suddenly we began to see something else… Something off in the distance. I couldn’t exactly tell what it was at first, but Coast knew and made me stop the buggy.
“What’s that?” I asked.
Coast was extremely excited and too distracted to reply. Instead she hopped out of the buggy, her polka dot dress catching for a moment almost tripping her.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“It’s time, it’s time!” She replied.
“Time for what???”
“Mail time!” She announced.
“Mail time?”
“Yes!" She cheered, finally giving me an actual answer. “It’s the pony express! It’s one of my favorite things in the whole world!”
“What’s the Pony express?” I asked
“You’ll see soon enough, so stop asking questions and just start living… Get over here!”
I hopped out of the buggy and she made me stand next to her. She held her hand up in the air and made me do the same.
“Ok just stand still!" She advised. “they’ll be here soon!”
Whatever was in the distance was surrounded in a brown cloud of dirt, but soon enough it began to come into view. Two lines of horses ridden directly side by side. Faster and faster they came. The sound of horse hoofs roaring against the dirt, leaving an earthen cloud behind. We could hear the riders shouting at their horses, willing them to go faster.
“Wait, if we stand here, were going to get trampled!” I began to worry.
“It’s going to be okay.” She insisted.
I wanted to believe her… but I couldn’t help it, as soon as the horses came, I dodged them jumping out of the way. I could see Coast only for a moment, first standing there with her hand held high just before disappearing into the stampede of horsemen.
“Coast!” I shouted as I closed my eyes, I didn’t want to see the dreadful horror of what must have just happened.
“She must be dead!” I thought to myself, “mushed!”
I gathered the courage to open my eyes again, But the air was polluted in dirt and I couldn’t see her.
“Coast?" I called out to her. “Coast? Are you alive?"
The cloud of dirt had finally cleared as the pony express riders charged off into the distance once more. The sound of horse hoofs thundering before fading away.
Finally, I saw Coast, she was just standing there, unscathed. Her hand still held high, but now grasping a letter between her fingers.
“Mail time!” She said once again. “I love it!”
I was relieved and utterly amazed that she was still intact. But mad that she had tormented me like that.
“Why would you do that?” I scolded her. “I thought you were dead!”
“Oh, I’m sorry Michael.” Coast sympathized. “I didn’t mean to scare you; I was just so excited to see the Pony Express... I thought you’d enjoy that too.”
“I did not enjoy that!” I replied shaking my head. “Not one bit at all!”
“Well, maybe this will make you feel better!” she said waving the letter in her hand.
Coast peeled open the letter and began to read.
“It’s a letter from Montezuma!!” She declared.
“Who’s that?" I asked.
“Only one of the best Operators ever!!" She replied.
The letter read...
“-To all of Boysenvale.
People from all places of the known world have gone missing, disappearing